This invention relates generally to articles of office furniture used for organizing or distributing correspondence and communications, and particularly to an improvement in such an article commonly referred to as a desktop mail sorting rack.
Mail sorting stations are found in many business and office settings, and the designs for mail sorting racks are well known to the art. Most conventional mail sorting racks comprise a series of horizontal shelves which are divided into compartments by vertical partitions. Examples of such mail sorting racks are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,062,302 and 3,107,012.
All of the compartments in a given mail sorting rack are generally of the same invariable dimensions, such that a person must choose the particular size and the total number of compartments at the time the mail sorter is being ordered or purchased. If the needs of the business change, one or more additional mail sorters must be acquired or the existing mail sorters must be completely replaced. In either case, this can represent a significant expense. If the business chooses to make do with the existing sorters even though they have been rendered obsolete or inappropriate, the result can often be inconvenience to those using the mail sorting system, and lost or inefficient communications within the business. While some mail sorting racks permit the vertical partitions to be removed, the heights of the individual compartments are not adjustable, and the partitions are not designed to function with compartments which would be adjustable.
The more familiar mail sorting racks and apparatuses include freestanding or tabletop shelving units constructed of textured sheet metal or fiberboard, having permanently fixed fiberboard or plastic partitions. Recently, mail sorting stations have been introduced to the market which comprise individual plastic or plastic-coated wire mesh partitions and shelves which permit an individual to see further into each compartment, or view a document through the shelf above.
In situations where only a very few compartments are required, multi-tiered trays and wall mounted organizers have proven to be suitable, as have filing stands with upright vertical dividers. An example of a simple, two-tiered desktop mail tray is shown in U.S. Pat. No. D. 212,264. Mail sorting trays and racks having more complex arrangements of shelves or baskets are also known. These items are generally constructed from high impact plastic or a generally rigid sheet metal.
One particular design includes individual, interconnected molded plastic organizers commonly referred to as "hot files." Hot files have the general shape of an inverted, open top triangular prism, and are usually mounted directly to a wall or floor stand in a vertically overlapping, tiered configuration similar to that of a magazine rack.
For infrequent or occasional use in sorting or distributing correspondence, a collating apparatus comprising a series of extensible slanted metal loop partitions connected in an accordion fashion may be employed. Such a collating apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,310,770.
Another item which may function as a mail sorting station is the desktop hutch organizer. These desktop organizer stands usually have a depth of one foot or less and a width approximately equal to the length of a standard secretarial desk, such that the organizer may rest on top of a desk and against a wall. These hutch type organizers generally have several shallow compartments and bookend type dividers.
A product similar to the conventional mail sorter and often found in the same business or office settings is the literature center or literature organizer. These items are more often used to store product information sheets, brochures, catalogs, and the like, where they may be easily accessed by employees for distribution or reference. The literature centers or literature organizers may also be adapted for use in mail sorting and distribution.
It should be noted, however, that the typical mail sorters are very large in overall size, particularly those which are designed to be freestanding or tabletop racks. This is also true for products such as the literature centers and desktop hutch organizers. While some of these items may be partially assembled by the purchaser, they will generally have some preassembled substructures such as the partitions and shelves, particularly if welding or crimping of rigid metal components is required.
Fiberboard or corrugated cardboard mail sorting devices may be broken down or disassembled, but are generally much lighter in weight than their steel or steel and plastic counterparts, and are correspondingly less durable or able to withstand the rigorous handling and use of an office environment.
Many of the mail sorters or products which may be adapted to use as mail sorters are thus bulky and generally difficult to ship to the customer. The ability to ship a product via standard non-freight carrier, such as the United Parcel Service, provides many advantages to catalog and mail order houses. Because the non-freight services deliver rapidly, and at a competitive rate, the shipper does not have to support and manage its own delivery system, nor choose between the additional expenses of a specialized package delivery service for short-range deliveries, additional charges for oversized non-freight deliveries by standard carriers, or have its customers inconvenienced and lose prospective sales due to the extended delay created by conventional freight carriers.
The individual or add-on type systems such as the hot files do not use office space efficiently, and have a very limited capacity. Trays and stacking organizers similarly cannot be accumulated in sufficient numbers to be practical in most offices without being unstable, unsightly, and inconvenient. The upright, open top dividers which are similar to a row of bookends and in which papers are set on edge do not hold looseleaf correspondence well, allow the edges to be crimped or curled, permit papers to slide out of the slots thus becoming disorganized, and may often result in misplaced correspondence when end pages in a stack are not placed between the proper dividers.
The uniform and invariable sizes of standard mail sorters limit their flexibility, since a person cannot choose to have various compartments of different sizes without purchasing two different mail sorting stations. A person cannot progressively or incrementally increase the number of compartments as the business organization grows or the communications network changes, nor vary the size of the compartments or decrease the number of compartments when appropriate.